My name is Josh Aiman, and I’m an artist in Arvada, Colorado. I use clay as my primary art-making material. I was initially drawn to clay and the field of Ceramics because of Sculpture. My pieces in Big Draw Colorado are called “Looking,” and “Sitting Woman with Blue” – both of these pieces are ceramic, made of clay, but not sculpture; and as wall pieces they act as canvases for drawing. Since August of ‘22, I have attended a weekly figure drawing club in Denver. Each week is a different nude model - which the group draws over a two hour period. All of the attending artists sketch the human form in support of their artistic practice. I decided I would use the sketches to create finished drawings in clay. Basically, I build a clay canvas which I can draw onto. I usually use a sgraffito technique in which I carve drawn lines through a layer of underglaze that exposes the clay body underneath. This sgraffito technique is a mark-making technique that allows me to capture the form of the figure, and the nuance of the form through scratching, sketching and crosshatching. Being able to incorporate drawing into my ceramic art practice has been stimulating, and has helped reinforce the foundation of my artistic skill.
